Topics - FFMaster

Since it has been a while, I'm making this thread to refresh my memory as well as others. This is mainly for people to discuss on what direction Arena should go, how to balance it, and any other changes that should happen.

Right now, I can remember a few things being debated before I left:

- Good/Bad compat being reduced to 12.5%. Best/Worst compat being reduced to 25%. For all I know, fdc is the only person who is truly against this change. From my view though, it would be an indirect nerf to healing as well as positive status abilities, since it will reduce their heal/hit rate, assuming all teams runs good/best compat teams (I've yet to see a team run 4 bad/worst compat team members =p). Damaging attacks will also become more standardised, assuming the opponent has a completely random Zodiac/gender. There may be other effects to this.

- Remaking weapons. As of right now, most weapons are using the PA*WP formula (Swords, Knight Swords, Katanas, Spears, Crossbows off the top of my head, there are likely more) and the only difference between them is range and equipment restrictions. I think diversifying them by changing the formula that each weapon uses will help some needed weapons that will always be shadowed.

- Status effects. This discussion is fairly recent on IRC. A suggestion was brought up (forgot who, sorry) suggesting that positive statii cancel negative statii and vice versa, similar to Haste/Slow. For example, Reraise could cancel Death Sentence, and Death Sentence could cancel Reraise. Now, a few problems arise. Firstly, we would have to decide which status goes with where (I honestly don't know what can go well with things like Frog or Oil). Secondly, this would make spells like Paralyze even stronger, although very little. Thirdly, this would make status healing spells less shiny, but once again this is quite minor. On the other hand, this would give the AI more incentive to use spells such as Protect/Shell, which were only used when allies were in critical.

Well, that's all I've got for now. Feel free to voice your opinions or to raise your own suggestions. If it is reasonable (ie. Doable), and has support we can try it out. If it doesn't work, then we can always revert back a bit.

Firstly, I don't want people to post in the Master Guide at all to keep it as clean as possible, compared to say, the 1.3 Master Guide.

If anyone sees problems on it, or if some information is missing, then please tell me. Is it too early to put in a Credits section?

Finally, I need a team building guide, and I don't feel like I would be the right person to do this. If possible, I would want it so that a newer person to Arena can read it. If someone can do this, it would be great.

[1] FAQWhat is FFT Arena?FFT: Arena is a patch where balance for AI battles takes top priority. All changes are made with the goal of balancing the game for AI battle at level 35 with the ruleset posted below.

Who are the creators FFT Arena?PX_Timefordeath was the person to start this project. However, it never picked up and soon died. Afterwards AeroGP picked up the project, with PX and FFMaster as helpers. The project gained some attention, but due to disputes in balancing, Aero left. Currently the project is maintained by FFMaster with a lot of input from the players.

What are FFT Arena's goals?The main goals are, in order of importance:1) To create a balanced playing field for AI battles2) To ensure that players have fun when watching and making teams3) To be a seamless system for a single player mode when the need arises

How do I build a team?The best way to build a team would be to download the .rar and use the spreadsheet. All the rules are in the last post of this thread. The spreadsheet removes the need to calculate JP by hand, and is simple to use. You can see team ideas in the team submissions thread or watching some of the videos.

[2] BASE MECHANICS CHANGESFuryFury is a mechanic which is applied to all weapon attacks. In the original game, the damage was not affected by Brave unless it was specifically in the formula (eg. Knight Swords). With Fury, the damage is changed depending on the attackers Brave as well as the targets Brave. The formula is:

Reaction RateThe current chance for a reaction to activate is (Br+Fa)/2 percent.

Unit action priorityHere is a question that appears a lot of times. If 2 units both have 100CT, which unit goes first? The answer is very simple, the first unit that is generated when the game loads the map, etc gets priority. This is why in normal FFT, the enemy and guests always move before you do, unless you have higher speed - they appear in the ENTD before your units do. Since it wouldn't be very balanced if all units on one side had action priority, Arena has tried to give both sides as much of an even footing as possible. Say, for example, both teams have 4 Units with 100CT. The priority order in in Arena would be:

This can be important for team building as well. If you want a unit to move before the others, like a unit with Phoenix Down, you would want to put him/her as Unit 1 in the submission. However, if you have a unit with Haste 2, you may want to put him/her as Unit 4. It is up to you.

Absorb: ElementAnything labelled Absorb is always neutral. This means you cannot do Weak: Element and Absorb: Element to double the absorb. Oil Also falls under this restriction.

Here we go again. This is a registration thread for people willing to enter another Arena tournament. It has been a while since we had one, and I think it will be a good idea to see what is broken.

There WILL be a limit of 16 teams and will be double elimination. And I expect that all teams play to win. There is no way to enforce that rule though, so all I can do is ask not to submit any joke teams.

After that, PM me with a team before the 14/01/11. EDIT:14th of January for you Americans.

For the past day or two, a few people have debated about certain base mechanics that we adopted from the 1.3 AI tourneys. I just want to see what you guys want, since you guys will be the ones entering teams after all. Please add comments in.

The plan is to have all items with Absorb: Element to also have Half: Element. What this does basically is halves all absorb. To get 100% healing from that element, you would need to be Weak: Element, from other items or Band of Elements or whatever. This removes Weak + Absorb completely.

If there is any reason why you don't like this, please post reasons why.

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They believe the Wi-Fi setup in their kids' elementary schools may be the problem."

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Denizens of /b/--where memes are born, cyberbullying campaigns are hatched, and child porn can sometimes be found--might be surprised to discover that 4chan isn’t as lawless as it seems."

Thank you Zodiac for a great tutorial! This is just to show how good your tutorial is! And it only took less than 2 hours to learn and tinker to edit my own formula!Use these things at your own risk! I am still a noob at this. All these hacks are for BATTLE.BIN except for the sound test hack and the Brave/Faith hacks! They have been labelled for you!

XX and YY are constants and can be changed. 18 is bolded because it can be changed. It load's the stat you want. For example, if you wanted it to be WP*Speed*3, then you change 18 to 38, change XX to 03 and YY to 01. Tinker as you wish.http://www.ffhacktics.com/wiki/Formula_Hacking

This is an extension to Razele's performing damage bonus hack. For example, if you made XX 18, units with Undead or Charging would both gain 50% damage bonus. However, A unit with both Undead and Charging would still only receive 50% bonus damage. IT DOES NOT STACK.

# 0x40 = HP Restore# 0x20 = MP Restore# 0x10 = Critical Quick# 0x08 = Meatbone Slash XX can be changed. This one is a bit trickier. You want to add the ones you only want activated while critical. For example, if you only want MP Restore and Critical Quick to activate without being in critical status, then XX = 48, since HP Restore and Meatbone Slash are the ones you don't want activating. If you have problems, ask on IRC.

I better explain this one. Say for example, in FFTPatcher, you have a spell with CT = 3. Normally, Short Charge will halve it, and round up, meaning that the spell is now CT = 2. With this small hex edit, Short Charge will now round down, so the spell is now CT = 1(cast as soon as everyone who has 100 speed has had a turn). As a special case, a spell with original CT = 1 + Short Charge + this hack will be effectively a spell with Non-Charge, since the CT is now 0. So if you really want to use this, remember this special case.

This sets all Katana to XX% break when a Draw Out is used. 00 for 0% break chance, 64 for 100% break chance. A lot of people have been waiting for this one =pNOTE: If you set a formula other than the Draw Out ones, the Katana will still break at 100% chance!

This hack reduces ALL ability CT by XX/YY, rounded down. If the CT of an ability is lower than XX/YY, it will be forced to be 1CT. Abilities with 0CT will not be affected. For example, I have a spell with 5 CT, XX = 38, YY = 09. If I have 18 speed and the divider is 9, the final CT of the spell is then 3. THIS HAPPENS BEFORE SHORT CHARGE.Does not affect Charge(Archer skillset), does affect skills with Persevere flagged(Sing/Dance).

For example, if you want Oil to grant weakness to Fire/Holy/Dark, then XX = 73 and YY = 83

For those who want to mess with the effects more:First XX = Elements to ignore Absorb on targetSecond XX = Elements to ignore Null/Half on targetFirst YY = Elements to grant Weak on targetSecond YY = Elements that will remove Oil

The bolded numbers can be changed to fit any RSM. Check the wiki for which numbers correspond to which RSM. You can also set it to work with other things.Example: changing 92 to 06 and 80 to 20 will make Reis formula work with monsters only.

AI Hacks

0x12D2E8e860050800000000

0xF13A03a0082901a80013cXX004224bc50060800000000

0x124AE2change 40 to 00

0x137F56change 80 to 00

This makes the status itself blank, but allows the CT to be used elsewhere, or you can code your own status effect if you really wanted to.

Honestly, I have no idea what I am doing. I wish the logs of LD's lessons helped me, but all they really did was give me links to programs. Is there any way I can find the offsets for Charging status, and be able to edit the bonus damage to whatever I wanted? Either that, or a link to other ASM tutorial guides would be helpful.